Play Streets
‘To be happy and healthy, children need a decent amount of everyday, sociable play and physical activity. To grow into independent, capable, resilient young adults, they need a chance to experience real life, explore and take risks. To develop a sense of belonging and responsibility for others, they need to be seen and heard in their communities.’
For most of us, the memories of how we played as a child take us back to a magical and happy place. Whether it was riding on your bike, playing curby or countless games and adventures with the kids on your street. Do children growing up now still have these same opportunities?
Are children playing out enough?
National and local research has highlighted that children are not playing out in the same way they have done in recent decades. Traffic has doubled since the 1980s – more needs to be done to support children and families to have safe spaces to play.
What is a ‘play street’?
Leeds City Council has an award-winning play streets scheme and is proud to be one of Playing Out’s beacon play streets.
Play streets happen when residents apply to the council to close the streets outside their homes to traffic for a few hours. This allows children to play and neighbours to come together and relax and have fun on their street.
A play street allows children to play freely. They might scoot, cycle, skate, chalk, skip, kick a ball around, run, play games, put on plays - all on the safe and open stretch of their own road. Play streets give time and space for play and children have the freedom to choose how they play.
Here is a play street in action:
Running a play street is simple, but there are key steps and information you will need to know before you start. Learn more about Play Streets in Leeds.
The research behind play streets
Playing Out is a resident-led group who promote children's freedom to play out in the streets and spaces where they live. They have pulled together research to show the positive impact that play streets have on children, families and communities. See the following links:
The Playing Out website is full of fantastic resources, case studies and top tips for running play streets.
The Play Street Enablement project
Leeds City Council works in partnership with Kidz Klub and LS14 Trust to deliver the Play Street Enablement project. This project provides extra support to residents wanting to set up play streets. Professor Alison Stenning (School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University) produced an evaluation of this project in 2021/22.
You can read more on the author Alison Stenning's blog.